Debra DiGiovanni hosts couples whose night at The Roxy led to love

Share this Article

Handout
Gemini Award-winning Canadian comedian Debra DiGiovanni, who was a finalist on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, hosts The Roxy’s version of “The Newlywed Game” Friday night.

Ladies: You know that guy at the bar who won’t stop hassling you for a dance? Don’t be too quick to judge — he could turn out to be the love of your life.

That’s what happened to Roxy Zeiler, who is lucky her husband Steve was persistent when they first met in 2006 at the Granville Street club that shares her name.

The pair is among 12 married couples who first met at The Roxy Cabaret, and were selected as part of the club’s 25th anniversary to compete for an all-inclusive second honeymoon at a five-star resort of their choice.

“This group of girls came in beside me and I asked one of them to dance and she not-so-politely told me no,” recalled Steve Zeiler, 44, reached by phone from his home in Penticton.

“But being the person I am I didn’t give up and waited until I’d had a few more drinks and asked her again a little later and she said ‘yeah, ok.’ We danced all night and I phoned her the next day and from that point on we really were inseparable.”

Steve and Roxy married nine months later and he became the step-dad to her five children.

The Zeilers will be competing in The Roxy’s version of the classic Hollywood game show “The Newlywed Game”, hosted by Gemini Award-winning Canadian comedian Debra DiGiovanni, who was a finalist on NBC’s Last Comic Standing — meaning the event is sure to sell out.

She met her husband Garth Jones while waiting in a three-and-a-half hour lineup one night in 2005, after half the friends she had come with had bailed. After chatting her up, Garth, now 27, made her promise to dance with him as soon as they got inside.

They married six years later and Samantha said they still party there all the time.
“I just love the atmosphere,” she said. “…It’s just my comfort zone there, we don’t go to any other clubs.”

Tickets for The Roxy Love Affair are $10 in advance through ticketweb.com or $13 at the door.

Steve and Roxy Zeiler met at The Roxy Cabaret in 2006 and married nine months later.